1972 C20 build and adventure thread

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by FLYNAVY30

Wife was super helpful.....

Pretty expensive footstool....

Originally Posted by FLYNAVY30

V1.0 of the engine swap all buttoned up.... The unfortunate part is that shortly after getting the truck up and running, the bypass valve in the oil pump seized, bypassing oil back to the pan, resulting in multiple spun bearings. This was in the summer of 2014, shortly before we were to drive to Austin for our wedding.

At that point I was just frustrated, so I parked the truck and we headed to Austin.

That's a bummer for sure, after all that work. Hope you can get it fixed up. Keep on it.....

LockDoc

[FLYNAVY30]

We got back from our wedding in September of 2014, after having our honeymoon cancelled due cancelled flights on the part of Delta, and incompetent call-center customer service on the part of Orbitz....side note, I'll never use one of those travel sights again. I decided to yank the wounded motor along with the tired junk-yard transmission I had originally used, and hunt for a long term, reliable replacement. I settled on a long block from Thompson Motorsports in Texas. They have an excellent reputation for a quality product on all of the LS forums. I went with a stock displacement, 6.0L iron block with a few upgrades like forged pistons, bigger cam, and some head work to bump the compression up to 10.5:1. For the transmission, I went with a Gear Star 4L65E STG 2.

While I was making such major changes, I decided to upgrade to the Holley Terminator EFI to run fuel injection, along with the ignition and transmission controller. In the first iteration of the build, I never felt like the engine and transmission were in sync. Shifts never seemed to be at the right time and the carb was very fussy to get started after sitting out overnight in the winter.

It took a while to get the truck back on the road, but I had it up and running in time from some later summer, early fall road trips in 2015.

[FLYNAVY30]

After allowing the self-tuning EFI to learn for 1000 miles, I took it to VA Speed for a final dyno tune to smooth the fuel mapping by hand. The self learning EFI systems are really a 90% solution....they get you very close, but especially with an automatic transmission, having someone who knew what they were doing tweak the fuel and ignition maps, and a few of the shift points, made all the difference in the world. The truck drives like any factory equipped 6.0L LS truck. Through the end of 2015 and most of 2016, I put a fair number of miles on the truck. We drove Norfolk to Boston and then Maine again to visit friends, went up to Charlottesville, and then took the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way down to Asheville and back to Norfolk, then drove from Norfolk out to South Bend, Indiana to unfortunately watch Texas get destroyed by Notre Dame.

The one thing all of this road tripping did reveal was that the brakes needed to be addressed. The truck was factory equipped with front discs and rear drums, all of which were tired and needed work. I'm not particularly savvy on rebuilding drums, so I started searching for a viable disc conversion on the rear. More to follow.....

[Beach-Burban]

Originally Posted by FLYNAVY30

After allowing the self-tuning EFI to learn for 1000 miles, I took it to VA Speed for a final dyno tune to smooth the fuel mapping by hand. The self learning EFI systems are really a 90% solution....they get you very close, but especially with an automatic transmission, having someone who knew what they were doing tweak the fuel and ignition maps, and a few of the shift points, made all the difference in the world. The truck drives like any factory equipped 6.0L LS truck. Through the end of 2015 and most of 2016, I put a fair number of miles on the truck. We drove Norfolk to Boston and then Maine again to visit friends, went up to Charlottesville, and then took the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way down to Asheville and back to Norfolk, then drove from Norfolk out to South Bend, Indiana to unfortunately watch Texas get destroyed by Notre Dame.

The one thing all of this road tripping did reveal was that the brakes needed to be addressed. The truck was factory equipped with front discs and rear drums, all of which were tired and needed work. I'm not particularly savvy on rebuilding drums, so I started searching for a viable disc conversion on the rear. More to follow.....

Really enjoyed this latest installment, Greg. Traveling is what my wife and I plan to do now that I'm retired...and the East Coast is on our "must do" list! The EFI and Brake enhancements are both on my wish list for down the road a bit...but I'm absorbing as much intel as I can before jumping into those projects. I'm actually impressed with how nicely the original brake set-up on my Suburban handles bringing this big truck to a stop...but there's definitely room for improvement! My 454 has a completely dialed-in Q-Jet (for sea-level), but as I plan on traveling to various elevations, the EFI sounds like the way to go. I currently have a 45 gallon vented tank that was dealer installed back in it's early years that I recently had out to change the sending unit. The tank is spotless inside and the outside was just covered in the normal road grime and dust from living in the desert for so long. I'd love to keep the tank, but do you know what would need to be done to utilize it? Thanks for the build thread...and I really like how you are integrating the "Adventure" aspect into the story!
Woody

[CG]

I was pretty sure I wouldn't like the new wheels, but they look pretty darn good. I think being black helps. Im surprised the calipers wouldn't work with 16 inch rims. No room to grind them down a tad?

BTW if you want I could ship you a Seahawks bumper sticker for your truck if you would like to cover the one some hooligan stuck on there without your knowledge haha!

[Deathwish]

I will be following this one closely. I am looking at a 72 Burb for a project, and this is right up my alley!

Very nice!

[FLYNAVY30]

Originally Posted by Deathwish

I will be following this one closely. I am looking at a 72 Burb for a project, and this is right up my alley!

Very nice!

Thanks! Feel free to post any and all questions. I wish I had started this thread as I was building the truck....there would have been a lot more technical info about the process. Once I get the thread caught up to the current state, Ill cover all future mods in a little more detail.

[FLYNAVY30]

Originally Posted by CG

BTW if you want I could ship you a Seahawks bumper sticker for your truck if you would like to cover the one some hooligan stuck on there without your knowledge haha!

Hahaha....hard pass!

[FLYNAVY30]

The next couple updates will cover our week-long road trip in the Summer of 2017 on Rally North America. I highly recommend you look them up if you're into the road rally thing...there are some really good videos on youtube covering past years. My ONLY complaint (and this is extremely minor) is that I was surprised how few vintage cars were on the rally. Of the 72 teams that went, I think we were one of 5 cars over 20 years old.

Anyway, joining us on this adventure were my Brother and Sister In Law in his 1967 Camaro...which is another good story...he and I found that car the morning of my wedding. While everyone else was getting ready, we took the opportunity to go car shopping in and around Austin since you can't find rust free, vintage iron as readily on the East coast.

Also joining us were our next door neighbors in their Porsche Caymen S. The pics below are from day one as we drove from Norfolk VA to Charlottesville the day before the actual rally started.

[FLYNAVY30]

Day two was spent driving from our over-night in Charlottesville up to Blacksburg for the start of the actual rally. We drove most of the way on the Blue Ridge Parkway which was absolutely gorgeous!

[Average Joe]

Very cool pics!

Thats gotta be the best lookin ls swap ive ever seen. Nice work!!!

[FLYNAVY30]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Very cool pics!

Thats gotta be the best lookin ls swap ive ever seen. Nice work!!!

Thanks! I've actually got a bit more tidying up to do under the hood. I bought a set of the old 327 finned valve covers with the "Corvette" script that I'm going to install using the LS to SBC adapters. I think that will complete the look with the chrome air lid and decal. I've also got some black braided stainless brake lines to replace the ones currently running off the master cylinder so that they aren't so "bling-y". Lastly, I'm still on the hunt for a radiator close out panel to fill the gap up front.

[FLYNAVY30]

Day three was technically the first official day of the rally. We drove from Blacksburg to Danville, with a quick stop for a photo op at Martinsville, a mid day stop at a winery to keep the ladies motivated, and then some "hot-laps" at VIR. Yes, I did run two laps in the Suburban I was obviously extremely slow, but it ended up working out for our two compatriots as when I pulled off after two laps, the rest of the group was over half the track in front of us, still behind the "pace car" (which was driven by a professional driver, going about 6/10ths) so they got to run the rest of their laps pretty much wide open.

[FLYNAVY30]

Day 4 took us from Danville, up to Grandfather Mountain, dinner stop in Asheville, and then finally into Waynesville NC. I wish I could get the panoramic photos from Grandfather Mountain to load properly, as they are pretty epic, but you get the idea. Those Wilwood brakes very much proved their worth crawling back down the mountain!

[FLYNAVY30]

Day 5 of our adventure took us from Waynesville NC, through the mountains and to the official end of the rally in Rome GA. We got as high as 7000+ feet above sea level, which is of course where we encountered our only mechanical problem of the trip. I had noticed in the weeks leading up to the trip that my fuel pump would get warm, and start to wine a bit roughly 2 hours into a trip, but then if I stopped for gas, and let it cool off for a bit, it would be fine. I figured my brother-in-law's Camaro with 454 and a 4spd wasn't going to make it more than 2 hours on a tank, so I brought a spare pump and tools to be safe, but didn't give it much more thought. As I stated earlier, the problem was that I had the pump originally mounted on the rear cross member, which put it about half way down the tank. This mean that it was fine until I got below half a tank of gas, and then it had to work significantly harder to pull the fuel out of the tank. You can imagine how this scenario was exacerbated at 7000 feet, in the middle of summer. Fortunately, I managed to limp the last few hundred feet to the parking lot at the summit, where I swapped fuel pumps while the girls broke out some of the wine that had accumulated at various wineries along the trip. Obviously the new pump didn't permanently fix the problem, but after talking with the guys at Holley, I at least knew what the problem was, and made sure to top off before getting below a half tank. Its also worth pointing out at this point that the Holley Terminator EFI performed flawlessly the entire trip....including the elevation changes. The carb'd 454 Camaro did not appreciate the altitude changes at all!

[FLYNAVY30]

Day 6 was somewhat of a bonus day....the rally was over, but the organizers were able to book laps at Talladega for anyone that wanted to run....of course everyone did, although the Suburban sat out due to the fuel pump, offload tires, high center of gravity, steep banked turns, etc, etc. I did get to ride shotgun in both the Camaro and the Porsche. The Camaro was awesome, and looked the part but was limited to about 110 MPH due to gearing and the 4 spd which meant we were barely fast enough to keep the car up on the banks of the track. The Porsche on the other hand was silly fast....and the faster you went, the more solid it felt. It just kind of hunkered down and kept gaining speed. Like VIR, these laps were "paced", but the lovely gentlemen driving the pace car certainly didn't appear to have any interest in limiting anyone's attempt at personal top speed records. We easily saw 150+ in the Porsche. After the fun at the track, we returned to Rome and spent that afternoon at the downtown beer garden....highly recommended if you ever find yourself in that area! All outdoor seating, right on the river.

[FLYNAVY30]

On Day 7 and 8, we took our time and made our way back to Norfolk via back roads, with an overnight in Charlotte. We worked in some more vineyards to keep the girls entertained, which resulted in some pretty solid back road driving.

[68bowtie]

What a cool trip! The burb looks great, nice work.

[LockDoc]

-
Very interesting. Looks like you guys had a GOOD TIME!

LockDoc

[68panelman]

Indeed a super cool trip, awesome build, and a particular wine glass that I love

[FLYNAVY30]

Following the rally, I pulled all the decals off the truck, and used it mostly as a daily driver for the rest of the summer/fall of 2017. We also drove it to Maine and back to visit friends for about two weeks with no issues. Unfortunately, I deployed to the Middle East in December of 2017, so the truck would sit in storage for the next 7 months.

[FLYNAVY30]

Following my deployment, I got the truck out of storage, and back on the road in July of 2018. I was pleasantly surprised when I reconnected the battery, and she fired up on the first try. I drove the truck as my daily driver for the majority of the summer, hitting the local cars and coffee, going to the beach, etc. Unfortunately, I started having an over heating problem early in the fall, and found that my fancy Entropy radiator was leaking for the core. Turns out, its completely my fault as I neglected to install a radiator zinc in the drain hole when I initially installed it and the aluminum welds inside the core had eroded away after 5 years of use.

[FLYNAVY30]

So that brings this thread up to May of 2019. The poor Suburban has been sitting in my storage unit, awaiting a radiator swap since the end of last summer. Unfortunately our condo only has a 1 car garage, and my recently acquired 1964 Corvette project has been taking up the garage. I should have that back on the road in the next two weeks, and be able to get the Suburban back in the garage for some work. In addition to the radiator swap, I have some different valve covers to install, some engine bay wiring to clean up, headers to send out for blasting and re-coat, new stainless exhaust, and a few other small bits to take care of. I'll also start the headliner replacement project that I've been putting off for years. I will update this thread with pics and details about each project as they get completed so stay tuned!

[Beach-Burban]

Great thread, Greg...I will certainly be watching for more installments! That is an incredibly clean Corvette...have fun with that! Not that I can handle two project vehicles, but I have just located my actual '69 Camaro that I sold in the early 80's (because it was too hard to get the "baby seats" in and out of the backseat). It is a disassembled long-term project belonging to the owner of the tire shop I frequent, and he's not ready to sell! I would only be able to afford it in its current condition...so it's a "Catch-22" situation? Below is a picture of how it looked when I sold it.
Woody

[FLYNAVY30]

Oh man, that's cool!!! If you can pry it out of his hands, I'd definitely get it back! I really wish I could go back to 2006 and find/buy back the '69 Corvette that I purchased after my first deployment, but then sold. It needed a bunch of work that I didn't have the skills/time/money/space to complete at the time, but could certainly do now. That being said, a Europen influenced C2 build has always been at the very top of my list of cars to build/own, so I'm very thankful I found this one.